Food grain scam: Cong to move court against Pb govt

Rejecting the Punjab government’s move to convert an alleged misappropriation of Rs 31,000 crore into a loan, the opposition Congress said on Thursday that it has decided to approach the court to scuttle the move.

Reacting to the “admission made by the state government about missing food grains to the tune of Rs 31,000 crore”, Punjab Congress Vice President and Chief Spokesperson Sunil Jakhar said: “You cannot convert a theft into a loan and put the liability on the people of the state for another 20 years.”

Jakhar, who has been vigorously raising the issue of the missing food grains for quite some time, pointed out that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the consortium of 33 banks had earlier refused to provide the Cash Credit Limit (CCL) guarantee to Punjab over earlier this year.

“Instead of putting the liability on the people of the state, the responsibility must be fixed and the theft amount recovered from the personal properties of those responsible. Why should people of the state, who are already burdened with over Rs 1.25 lakh crore debt, bear the liability of the theft committed by few people in power?

“Come what may, the Congress party will not allow it. You cannot condone a massive scandal of such humongous proportion by an executive order. The Congress party will use all the legal and constitutional means to ensure that not only are the real culprits punished, but also made to repay the money they have defrauded people of, from their personal accounts,” he asserted.

Jhakhar said that the truth had finally come out and the state government had to eventually admit to the fraud despite the BJP-led NDA government at the centre “desperately trying” to shield the state government “under the patronage of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley”. Jakhar said, given the nature of irrefutable evidence, corroborated by the Comptroller and Auditor General also, which pointed out to use of “ghost trucks” bearing registration numbers which later turned out to be of the two wheelers, the state government had no way but to admit to the fraud.